The Eastern Veil Nebula - NGC 6992

 

The Eastern Veil Nebula in the constellation Cygnus the Swan. Originally captured with the Meade 127mm Apo-refractor and a Canon 400d Camera. Data rework by Pip Stakkert in Oct 2022.

"The amazing improvements in astro-software really emphasize the benefits of retaining old data captured at the Jodrell Plank Observatory in previous years. The eastern veil is a portion of  the 'Cygnus Loop'. The Cygnus loop  was created by a star 20 times more massive than our sun which exploded in a supernova sometime between 10 thousand and twenty thousand years ago. The loop covers approximately 3 degrees in the sky (larger than the full moon) and in portions is just visible to the eye through a medium aperture telescope on a moonless night.   The nebula is visible as filaments of ionized gas and recent estimates put it some 2400 light years distant from the Earth. Together with the many stars visible in the Milky Way in this area of the Summer Sky, the Cygnus Loop is an astronomical feature of considerable beauty". - George Hammer  staff astro-geologist at the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

As above but with reduced stars

Partial Solar Eclipse of the Sun Oct 25 2022

The Eclipse at about maximum. Image a composite of  stacked video frames taken with the observatory's Star Adventurer mini-rig. Altair Astro 66mm Doublet Refractor and QHY5-llc video camera. Image credit: Joel Cairo

 

The last moments of the partial solar eclipse as the Moon moved out from infront of the Sun's disc. Mini rig set up as before with the addition of a x3 Televue Barlow lens. Image credit: Pip Stakkert.

"The sky over the Jodrell Plank Observatory was peppered with clouds for the duration of the partial solar eclipse. We therefore considered ourselves lucky to get a couple of images from the day. The presence of  sunspots on the solar disc was a bonus" .- Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

The Bay of Rainbows and the Crater Harpalus

 

The Bay of Rainbows or Sinus Iridum near the terminator on a waxing gibbous Moon. 127mm Meade series 500 Apo Refractor, x3 Televue Barlow and QHY5-llc planetary camera. Credit: Pipp Stakkert.

"Harpalus is a 40km crater near to the north-west rim of the Moon just north of the Bay of Rainbows. The impact crater has been formed in the western extremity of the dark lunar lava locally known as the Mare Frigoris. The crater is thought to be a relatively new lunar feature and less than  1.1 billion years old." - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Jupiter 2022

 

Jupiter and moons Europa and Io on the 6th of October 2022. Compilation of two stacks one using a 2x Barlow lens and one a 3x Barlow lens. 127mm Meade 500 Series Apo refractor and QHY5-llc planetary camera. Stacked and processed using PIPP, Registax6, AutoStackert3!, Fitswork4 ,Topaz DenoiseAI and Affinity Photo. Credit Kurt Thrust.  

"Our first attempt at capturing Jupiter this year. We were not convinced that the sky over Lowestoft was quite stable enough for capturing a sharp image of the largest of the Solar System's planets, but we think it turned out alright in the end." Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Europa credit:JPL NASA

Io credit:JPL NASA

A Falcon 9 rocket taking off from the Cape

 

Photo Credit :Jeff Payne Bermuda

Sunspot Groups AR3116 and AR3112

Sunspot Groups AR3116 and AR3112 taken on 06-10-2022 by Pip Stakkert using the 127mm Meade Apo Refractor, 3x Barlow lens and QHY5-ll mono planetary camera stacked and processed using PIPP, AutoStakkert3, Affinity Photo,  Fitswork4 and Topaz Denoise AI.

 

Credit:NASA-SDO_sun-in-visible-light_2022-oct-07_0100UTC_labels-e1665106680491

"The Sun has become more active  and a number of large sunspots have been evident on the face of our neighbourhood star. The largest spot group currently, AR3112, is responsible for the recent auroral activity visible from northern parts of the United Kingdom. This week, our instrumentation engineer, Jolene McSquint-Fleming, made new white light filters for the Jodrell Plank Observatory. With ever present high level cloud, yesterday was not the best for taking images of the Sun but we decided to test the filter made for our large refractor.  With clearer skies I believe we may get sharper images with this set up." - Kurt Thrust  current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

North America Nebula Revisited

The North America and Pelican Nebula in the Constellation Cygnus the Swan. Composite image of 1.5 hours of data captured with the Jodrell Plank Observatory astromodded Canon 200d DSLR and the unmodded Canon 600d DSLR cameras 
 A Samyang 135mm lens was used on both cameras which were set to capture
one minute exposures at ISO800. The caneras were on a Star Adventurer
equatorial mount. The images from the two cameras were combined using
RegiStar software and processed using; Affinity Photo, GraXpert, StarnetGUI,FitsWork4, Topaz Denoise AI and GradientXterminator. Credit: Pip Stakkert

, 
 "Our imaging technician, PipStakkert, re-worked the data to produce this new and improved image, which has much greater depth, stronger colours and fewer stars. A key factor in delivering this  photograph of NGC7000 within the summer Milky Way, was the availability of freeware GraXpert and Starnet GUI. The generosity of amateur astronomers and software developers in spending hours of their time creating such powerful software tools and making them available free to other astro-imagers is  astounding. Thank you very much! Thanks also to the magazines Sky at Night and Astronomy Now for highlighting the availability of  new astro-imaging software and for providing overviews of their application." - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

The before image for comparison